Migrant Watch

Woman Pleas for Sister’s Life
OFW’s Urgent Repatriation Urged After Distress Call

A woman has appealed to Migrante International to help the repatriation of her sister who works as a domestic in Kuwait. She made the appeal following a distress call from her sister.

BY KARL G. OMBION
Bulatlat.com

BACOLOD CITY -- “During her last call, Liezl said she will not be able to communicate with us anymore because her salary has been withheld for four months already.  But she pleaded for help because she and her colleague, also an overseas Filipino worker (OFW), were being maltreated by their employer.” 

This was what Liezl Gustilo told her sister Retchel during their last telephone conversation two months ago. Liezl, 22, who hails from Hinigaran town in southern Negros Occidental, works as a domestic in Kuwait. Retchel, 25, fears for the safety of her sister.   

Last week, Retchel told Bulatlat.com that Liezl has a two-year contract as a domestic in Kuwait. She worked with her first employer for 11 months before working with her current employer. 

The Gustilo family has approached Migrante, an international alliance of OFW groups, for assistance for the immediate repatriation of Liezl from Kuwait.  In response, Migrante, through its vice-chairperson John Monterona, has called the attention of the Philippine embassy in Kuwait as well as local line agencies and government units. But these government offices, tasked with protecting the rights and welfare of overseas Filipino workers, still have not extended any assistance to Liezl.  

Nor surprising

Larry Occena, Migrante-Negros chair, says such response is not surprising. In Negros Occidental itself, he says, there are no welfare assistance programs. “This aggravates the dire situation OFWs and their families are confronted with, as in the case of the Gustilo family,” he says.

The sugar province has at least 25,000 documented land-based OFWs; an additional 20,000 come from Bacolod City alone. The number does not include undocumented OFWs and non-land-based OFWs such as seafarers. 

Apparently, the employment agency, Al-Fatih Manpower Services, brought Liezl to Kuwait in March last year. But one month later, its permit expired, Migrante also revealed.

“We appeal to all concerned local officials and candidates to start working with Migrante to address various issues and concerns of OFWs and their families,” Monterona added.

The urgency of Liezl’s case, as well as those of other OFWs, cannot be understated, he said. “Delays in urgently responding to the pleas of distress by OFWs add to the increasing statistics of abused OFWs whose dreams of a better life are shattered by the stark realities of slaving it out abroad for lack of employment opportunities in the country.” Bulatlat.com

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